Anti-Road Group Fails to Address Growing Needs of Texas
4/4/2008
Public-private partnerships and toll roads are proven solution and avoid need for massive gas tax increases AUSTIN – Opponents of the Trans Texas Corridor and other vital Texas infrastructure projects are once again seeking to generate media attention to prevent desperately needed expansion of Texas’s transportation system. Texas is growing, but if opponents get their way Texas’s roads will not grow with it. “TURF’s unbending opposition to new roads means more traffic congestion, more accidents, less job creation and a worse quality of life for Texas motorists and families,” said Bill Noble, spokesman for Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation. “Texans need and deserve real solutions to our growing traffic challenges, not just blind opposition to new lane and highway construction. Our state’s transportation system must continue to grow as Texas grows and all Texans must come together in support of vital infrastructure projects.” Texans Uniting for Reform and Freedom (TURF), a San Antonio-based anti-road group has scheduled a rally in Austin tomorrow in opposition to new transportation infrastructure that Texas needs to support its booming population and economy. “With 1,200 people per day coming to live in Texas, we need more transportation infrastructure and more highway funding from all sources, including tolls, private investment and other sources. Every day we delay building needed roads, mean higher construction costs and more frustration for drivers.” Noble continued. “Without alternative funding sources, experts estimate gas taxes will have to increase to from the current 20 cents per gallon to $1.40, or $12 - $24 in additional gas taxes for a tank of gas to meet maintenance and road building demands.” Opposition to new roads is not new. The Interstate Highway system was vigorously opposed by groups that argued too much farm land would be impacted by the system. Today, it is clear Interstate Highway system is vital to our nation’s and state’s prosperity. Here in Texas at the time of the “Get the farmer out of the mud” farm-to-market road program in 1941, the program was also condemned by interest groups and those that saw no need for new roads. Thirty-Four percent of our state’s population lives in the region that will directly benefit from the I-69 project. Today Texas is growing at 1,200 new residents each day. The state’s population is expected to grow 65 percent in the next 25 years while road usage is projected to increase 214 percent. Unless Texans change their approach to transportation, road capacity will grow by only 6 percent. Texans for Safe Reliable Transportation (TSRT) reminds Texans of these facts: - Better roads and infrastructure will dramatically improve our state’s hurricane evacuation capacity in a region where 25 percent of the state’s population lives and provide for better disaster response, job creation and improved traffic congestion. - Unlike tax-funded roads that all drivers help pay for, only those who choose to use toll roads pay for the road. Toll roads also reduce traffic on existing roadways as commuters opt to move from existing roadways to new toll roads. - The proposed I-69 project will better connect the 34 percent of the state’s population that lives in the region and give residents of South Texas a much needed highway connection with the rest of the state and nation. - Texas is our nation’s #1 exporter, so many Texas jobs depend on international trade. The I-69 crossing points at Laredo and Brownsville handle 49 percent of total U.S. truck-borne trade with Mexico - Twenty-Two of the nation’s top 25 seaports are directly connected to I-69 - Public-private partnerships (aka roadway “concessions”) act as a “lease” agreement between government agency owners of a roadway and the private entities offering to fund and/or operate the roadway. The government retains ownership of the project and the land underneath the roadway. The private entity offers to risk their funds and often make a significant upfront payment for the right to lease the project from the government. Historically, roads take decades to build. Tolls roads and the Trans Texas Corridor project can start moving people and goods throughout Texas years sooner than the traditional way of building roads. The Trans Texas Corridor will be built with private-sector money and without dramatically increasing taxes on all drivers – especially those who will never use the new highways.
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